Public Charter Schools

The District recognizes that public charter schools offer an opportunity to create new, innovative and more flexible ways of educating students that employ learning experiences based on current research and development. Public charter schools shall demonstrate a commitment to the mission and diversity of public education in addition to increasing student learning and achievement while adhering to one or more of the following goals:

Increase choices of learning opportunities for students;

Better meet individual student academic needs and interests;

Build stronger working relationships among educators, parents and other community members;

Provide opportunities in small learning environments for flexibility and innovation;

Encourage the use of different and innovative learning methods;

Create new professional opportunities for teachers;

Establish additional forms of accountability for schools;

Provide specialized learning programs; and

Create innovative measurement tools.

Public charter schools may be established as a new public school, from an existing public school or a portion of the school or from an existing alternative education program. A public charter school may not convert an existing tuition-based private school into a charter school, affiliate itself with a nonsectarian school or religious institution or encompass all the schools in the District unless the District is only composed of one school.

The Board will not approve any public charter school proposed when it is deemed that its value is outweighed by any direct identifiable, significant and adverse impact on the quality of the public education of students residing in the District. To meet the eligibility criteria for Board approval, a public charter school proposal must meet the requirements of Oregon Revised Statutes, Oregon Administrative Rules, Board policy and regulation.

The Board recognizes that students attending a public charter school may partially enroll in the District’s instructional programs. In that event, the revenue received from state school support funds will be appropriately pro-rated to account for that portion of public school attendance and that pro-rated revenue will be retained by the District.

The public charter school employer will be determined with each proposal. If the Board is the employer, the terms of the current collective bargaining agreement will be examined to determine which parts of the agreement apply. If the Board is not the sponsor of the public charter school, it shall not be the employer and will not collectively bargain with public charter school employees.

The Superintendent will develop administrative regulations for public charter schools to include the proposal process, review and appeal procedure and charter agreement provisions.